A spirited collection of provocative pathways.
A new collection of essays from Grayling (Philosophy/New Coll. of the Humanities, London; The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, 2014, etc.), whose distinguished record of accomplishments in the humanities and public service is recognized internationally.
The author organizes this thought-provoking collection of essays—most of them a concise three to four pages—into two sections. The first, “Destructions and Deconstructions,” deals with the problems of the contemporary world, including guns, religion, education, climate change, human rights issues, and global financial crisis. The second, “Constructions and Creations,” which is more philosophically programmatic in its orientation, takes up such themes as the public intellectual, the relationship between science and democracy (“the growth of science and the growth of liberal democracy were not merely contemporaneous, but causally connected”), and “Making the World a Better Place.” Grayling will no doubt offend conservative American readers with “The Prophetess,” a discussion of the “tough and tyrannical” Ayn Rand. “The microcosm of the Randian cult,” he writes, “was a reprise of every historical example of actual or would-be revolutions that have devoured their own.” Grayling will also provoke religious fundamentalists with “The Advantages of Atheist Political Leaders,” in which he writes, “atheist leaders are not going to think they are getting messages from Beyond telling them to go to war. They will not cloak themselves in supernaturalistic justifications, as Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush came perilously close to doing when later talking about the decision to invade Iraq in 2002.” However, he’ll likely find plenty of support for his examinations of Chinese and Russian irredentism. Grayling takes a philosophical and ethical approach to human action, which can be at odds with the importance Americans accord to ideological beliefs. Nonetheless, the contrasts he draws between religious and scientific worldviews and practices, as well as his discussions of the role of the public intellectual, are undoubtedly stimulating.
A spirited collection of provocative pathways.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4088-6461-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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